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Monday, May 12, 2014

Colton Gillies Game Used Stick

I recently got the chance to acquire an item for my collection that I had nothing of up to this point: a game-used hockey stick. While I do have a couple of cards with stick pieces on them, this is actually the first full piece that I have gotten my hands on.

This stick, at one time, belonged to former Minnesota Wild left winger Colton Gillies. The seller I purchased it from acquired it from Gillies during the 2009-10 season, when he was playing for the Wild's AHL affiliate, Houston Aeros. Being a former Houston resident, and current Minnesota resident, this was a perfect item to pick up, as it represents both of my "home bases" from the past 20 years.

Here's a few photos I snapped of the stick, just to show off to you all:


The signature and inscription on the blade reads "To Jack 04/26/10 Colton Gilles." Having the inscription isn't necessary, but cool, and it doesn't really bother me that it has another person's name on it. I just think it's an extra nice touch to even have the signature, as not all game-used items carry one.


Apart from the autographed blade of the stick, the other really cool part is the customized nameplate toward the top of the stick. Each stick will have this element, as it allows a particular player's stick to be easily identified on the stick rack among those of his teammates.


The butt end of the stick is wrapped in red tape, with a coil of some kind wrapped around underneath the tape, to give a better grip on the end. It is also done in red, which along with some green on the stick itself, matches the red and green colors of the Aeros, which the team adopted for the 2009-10 season and beyond, to match up with the colors of their parent club.


Here's a better look at the stick-maker's logo, which gives a really good view of the green element along the stick. This is taken from the reverse side of what is pictured on the full stick photo, but it gives a better look at the stick design, plus there's much more wear across this part of the stick.


I now have the stick mounted on the wall of my home office/guest bedroom/man cave. It's one of those things where it may not be of a major player, but that doesn't really matter, as it's always good to have anything extra to bring you that much closer to the game, plus it just looks really cool.

4 comments:

  1. I would like to add some more game used equipment to my collection. I have some cracked bats and game balls, but I'd love to have a set of catcher's equipment or a base.

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  2. Nice. Awesome stick. As a fellow Houstonian, seeing the Aeros play was always fun. It's a shame they're gone.

    Oh, and having grown up in New England, I've played hockey my entire life. That "coil" is just more tape. You take the roll of tape, pull off a big piece, and roll it like you would a drinking straw wrapper when you get bored at a restaurant. You wrap that around and then tape over it. DIY hand grip :)

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    Replies
    1. I figured that was it, but didn't want to go into detail just in case I was wrong.

      Yeah, even though I no longer live in Houston, I'll miss the Aeros being there. Unlike Dallas, it wasn't able to turn into a big hockey market, but the fans they had were pretty hardcore.

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